This last time they actually had a breeding pair of hawk headed parrots, a species I've only ever seen in BirdTalk before. They were a no sale because the seller wanted at least $800 could the pair and couldn't get it. I don't think I will get another sale bird. Though it will be years from now, the next bird I get well hopefully be a crimson bellied conure, and I will be buying from a smaller scale breeder.

Some of the things people will buy are just crazy though-- you couldn't pay me enough to take a monkey home....

Well, they had plucked the heck out of each other, so that may have had something to do with the price. It is rare for any bird sold there to go over $2000, and if it is going that high it's usually a large bird that is sold with a large cage that the seller has taken out and handled during the bidding.

As far as the two I've bought, Yoda is a great little bugger, and Solo is a work in progress (he is whistling, clicking, and grunting at me as I post-lol), but definitely coming along. It would just be nice to have a better idea of how a bird has been raised, etc. It's unlikely I would have bought Solo if his owner had not been a friend of a friend that I had a chance to talk to before bidding.

A lady I knew (oddly enough, a rescue) went to an exotics auction and purchased a kinkajou. And she built a cage, and put it in the cage, and fed it. Eh...why take something that wild and put it through that. Just isn't right.

I can see doing this... in the sense of if you know what the animal needs, and it's a "strange" animal like that, and you can care for it, I'd rather them buy it and take care of it how it needs to then somebody buying it on a whim. Not all animals can just be returned to the wild and survive.

__________________Ella: 3 year old female ferretNacho: ~8 year old male ferretGoodbye, Rosey. You were the best girl I could have asked for. 10/15/96-03/08/13

The same can be said for either species. "If you really loved them..."

Yet how many dogs do we see constantly dumped because someone is moving, someone had a kid, they decided it wasn't worth it anymore, got a new rug and the dog hair doesn't match, wanted a new younger dog instead, etc, etc, etc.

The exact same expectations apply to both species and their owners. Pets/hobby breeders, sport breeders, show breeders, BYB'ers, forever homes and business homes, breeding for conformation, temperament, purpose, and personal use, Other countries eat dogs. Other countries eat guinea pigs. And rats. And large fowl. And other little furry/fuzzy/feathered things we call pets that we are "really supposed to love...".

The only difference is our emotional attachment to the animal. Nothing else. We've applied our "one life is better than other" logic to animals as well, and the markets and how they are managed reflect that. Dogs, in some way or another, deserve better than other animals, despite the fact that horses can give us just as much emotional support, time, energy, and love as dogs do, and other animals as well.

Oh yeah, people totally do the same thing to dogs. You see the same type of ads on craigslist all the time about how wonderful fido was with their kids for the past 14 years and they love him so much, but he's got to go! And in most cases the animal ends up dead, either at a shelter or through kill buyers at an auction depending on the species.

Overall though, I think that dogs being a social carnivore are a lot more prone to mental health issues and have much bigger problems adjusting to living among people if they were raised in seclusion than any herbivore does. The herbivores are scared of us, so we get their trust. The carnivore might be scared, or it might see us as prey, etc.

I've seen people have a lot more success taming and turning BLM wild mustangs into good solid trail horses that are rented to the general public for rides than I have with people capturing adult feral dogs and turning them into a well adjusted household pet, must less something comparable to a therapy dog.

Actually, taking an adult mustang and turning it into a public trail horse is pretty rare. The majority of successful adopted mustangs are gotten as young animals. Having dealt with under socialized horses i can tell you that it's not always as simple as just getting the animal to trust people. No, a horse is not going to consider a human prey, but if a 1200 lb animal suddenly decides that fight is the better option than flight, you've got a serious problem.

The only animal auctions I've ever been to were for tropical freshwater fish. And it was a club auction so the sellers were known to the club and were selling off fish and plants they bred/raised themselves, not wild caught specimens (legit or otherwise). I had and have no issue with that sort of fish auction. Not really the same thing as auctioning off animals with higher order mental and social needs in addition to the physical needs.

I agree, Silly Sally. I think the success stories that are so common are horses under 3. Much different than working with a mature, middle aged horse around 10 or over. I remember reading online about someone who adopted two teenaged stallions and after hiring trainers and giving these horses lots of chances, they just weren't progressing and they ended up releasing both of them back into the "wild" (mustang sanctuary).

The problem with designating livestock or not status by asking yourself if you would eat them is that it would vary so much from person to person. I'm undecided myself as far as what to call horses - livestock is my first instinct, but horses are not commercially farmed and what other animal do we have three different Olympic disciplines built around? On the other hand, there are backyard horses and backyard cows, and 400k horses and 400k cows. Just because there is a high caliber does not mean they, as a species, are not considered livestock. I'm torn!

I've been to many, many livestock auctions over the years- both as the buyer and the seller when we had the goat dairy and rabbitry . Personally I never saw dogs do much at livestock auctions on this coast - although years ago they were allowed. Usually they went home with no buyer. Why? Let's be honest puppies to most buyers who are bunchers are a commodity with a serious shelf life issue or a serious risk to the bottom line if they come down with some disease like parvo or distemper.

I'm not sure with all the diseases around for birds I'd be willing to pick them up at an auction but maybe bird lovers know something I don't, but I kind of view most auction animals like that. Something I will live with for a long time probably would be purchased from a buyer who stakes their reputation on the product they are producing - where the slaughter ready chicken is less of a personal investment.